Behind Ingres' Curtain
Artist
John O'Reilly
(American, 1930–2021)
Date1986
MediumPolaroid photomontage
Dimensionsimage: 9 × 10 cm (3 9/16 × 3 15/16 in.)
sheet: 43 × 33 cm (16 15/16 × 13 in.)
frame: 34.7 × 44.9 cm (13 11/16 × 17 11/16 in.)
sheet: 43 × 33 cm (16 15/16 × 13 in.)
frame: 34.7 × 44.9 cm (13 11/16 × 17 11/16 in.)
ClassificationsCollages / Assemblages
Credit LineGift of John O'Reilly
Object number2018.21
Label TextO’Reilly’s montages often present a feature of his own body attached to one or more dismembered body parts found in canonical artworks. When assembling these bodies for his montages, O’Reilly describes himself as merging with the artists represented in those works. The concept of merging is crucial to understanding O’Reilly’s practice. Rather than seeing artists and authors as passive influences, O’Reilly defines his connection to the arts in more active terms, adding a degree of psychological intensity to his process.
In With Chardin, O’Reilly presents himself as joined at the head with eighteenth-century painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin; in fact, their vision becomes one through a shared lens. In Behind Ingres’ Curtain, O’Reilly assumes the role of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ model for The Valpinçon Bather (1808).On View
Not on view
